Gainesville Police Cracking Down on Jaywalking

GAINESVILLE- Jaywalkers, you’ll find them in the middle of the street, in the median, or running through moving traffic, but never in the crosswalk.

Gainesville Police have noticed the trend of people tango-ing with traffic along parts of University Avenue near campus.

More than 100 violators have faced the music so far this year.

Gainesville Police Officer Ben Tobias says, “We’ve got a hundred and sixty four total jaywalking citations written those can be anywhere from someone that’s crossing in a marked crosswalk but crossing against the crossing signal could be somebody that’s darting out into traffic or it could be somebody that’s just crossing mid block.”

Pedestrians are becoming aware of the price of jaywalking, a civil infraction ticket totaling $52.50.

Gainesville Police have also scheduled several traffic enforcement stings this year targeting drivers yielding to pedestrian traffic in crosswalks.